1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an ink jet printing apparatus that includes a printing unit having a printing head that discharges an ink toward a print-side surface of a material to be subjected to printing being transported thereby executing desired printing, and an ink fixing unit located downstream of the printing unit in a direction in which the printing unit is transported (hereinafter, transport direction), for solidifying and fixing the ink applied to the material to be subjected to printing, and to a method of manufacturing printed goods by an ink jet printing process.
2. Related Art
Printing techniques for printing a pattern on a surface of a fabric have been widely employed by apparel (garments) manufacturers and textile (fabric) manufacturers.
Conventional printing methods can be typically represented by screen printing and roller printing, which include a plate making process that utilizes screens or engraving rolls. In relation to this, a “cloth surface finishing method” has been developed, for example as disclosed in JP-A-2007-100257, that employs a laser beam to flatten the surface of a material to be subjected to printing, specifically a cloth, so as to draw a pattern thereon without forming a molten mass on the printed cloth.
In addition, an “ink jet printing method” has also been developed, for example as disclosed in JP-A-2003-293272, that includes applying a dye ink discharged from a printing head directly onto a material to be subjected to printing for printing a record thereon, for which the plate making process is not required.
The ink jet printing method also includes heat-pressing the material to be subjected to printing with a heat-press machine, an iron, or the like, to thereby steam-fix the dye ink applied to the cloth surface.
Since the material to be subjected to printing is a cloth, normally naps are present on the surface thereof. Also, there are cloths that are subjected to a raising process for increasing the number of naps on the surface, to thereby obtain a softer touch and texture, and further to improve heat retention.
In the case where ink jet printing is performed on the material to be subjected to printing having naps, a part of an ink droplet discharged from the printing head may adhere to a nap so as to form an “ink lump”, before reaching the base surface of the material to be subjected to printing, i.e., the cloth. The ink lump, if dried and solidified on the nap, degrades abrasion resistance of the cloth and thereby encourages color migration.
Further, since the ink lump is stuck to the nap which is raised from the cloth structure surface, the ink lump is located above the dyeing position on the cloth structure surface where the ink was supposed to land. Accordingly, the presence of the ink lump may degrade the quality of the printed goods.
The foregoing problem tends to appear more prominently with pigment inks which are larger in particle diameter than dye inks.
In the case where the techniques according to JP-A-2007-100257 and JP-A-2003-293272 are applied to a printing process on a material to be subjected to printing having naps, the raised naps are removed or depressed, which leads to significant degradation in touch or texture that the material to be subjected to printing initially had.
When performing a printing process on a material to be subjected to printing having naps, maintaining the natural feeling of the material to be subjected to printing such as the touch or texture is not less important, from the viewpoint of quality evaluation of the printed goods, than reproducing the pattern or image clearly.